Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 193: Conditional and unconditional

Early in the next morning, Arabella convinced Ada to go get breakfast while she got ready on her own before Silas’ arrival.

It revealed a good initiative as the vampire came by right when they have both taken the last bites of their meal. Arabella had insisted Ada sit down to eat with her.

She also wished to help clean the table, but the maid had to firmly decline as Silas already stood at the door.

"Would you like to go on another horse ride?"

That was the very first question he’d asked.

The already meek smile on her faded further, "Oh... I... My horse-riding clothes were torn at various parts,"

"We need to find a way to prevent your clothes from shredding every time things get difficult," he made a reference to the ball gown that Mr Kallum had tailored for her.

Arabella did not seem to find that particularly funny but still grimaced her best attempt at a grin.

Making her smile turned out just as hard of a task as the vampire expected it to be.

"No need for adequate clothing. You will be riding with me,"

He turned around and only took a few steps before her voice rooted him in place, "Will we be leaving the property?"

"No, we will not," his head alone spun her way, "Not as long as you haven’t said you are ready to,"

Not to mention, Silas himself, was not ready to cross the bounds of their property with her again just yet.

Chance was already saddled, waiting for them by the door. Much like the first time, Silas asked the young woman to spin around before lifting her off the ground and onto the horse against himself.

The vampire then signaled at the horse to trot at an easy pace for Arabella to handle.

The first ten minutes of their ride were filled with quiet, but it wasn’t as awkward as either of them feared it’d be.

Not when the gentle breeze grazed both of their faces, ruffling the soft hairs on their heads. She kept her hands on her lap, confident that should her figure lean too much onto one side, his arms would never allow her to fall.

Many questions swirled their minds yet neither managed to align the words; Arabella out of fear to ruin the moment or face images her conscious mind was not ready to tackle and Silas... He simply did not want her to feel cornered.

It was a peaceful ride through the lush, green hills that did not have to turn into or be anything else.

Although, eventually, Silas settled for one question that seemed cozy enough to broach, "Arabella," the vampire knew he had all of her attention upon sensing the sudden tensing of her body, "When or how do you determine that somebody you know is a friend and not anything less than that?"

Hearing her name from Ada’s mouth had a special feel to it, but in Silas’... It had a different ring to it, attaching an additional layer that muddied the water in which her thoughts whirled. freewebnøvel_com

Their proximity did not help with it one bit. However, the connection of their bodies had, at the very least, allowed her access to his steady heartbeats.

"It is a bit hard for me to say," her right thumb started rubbing the back of her left hand, "To be completely frank, the topic of friendship is not within my area of expertise," her head shook slowly, stroking his chest a few times, "I can’t say I’ve ever experienced friendship in the sense people truly mean it. Not until I came here,"

"What changed? What did you find here that wasn’t where you came from?" his hand gradually rose above her head, but right before touching her, Silas had a change of heart and brought it back down.

"Aside from my family, I met people here that did not work for my father," the vampire did not glimpse it, though he heard the smile in her voice.

"Why does that matter?" smooth and serene, the ice in his own was molten.

"My mother and brother loved me unconditionally and the staff around the manor were simply doing their jobs. They were kind, of course, but I never mistook their kindness for anything else,"

"Were you never in contact with anyone that wasn’t family or staff?" he continued.

"From afar, perhaps. After a certain age, my father prohibited it, stating it would complicate things for his plan," Arabella fiddled with her fingers at that response.

"And what sort of plan was that?" each of his exhales collided with her hair.

"No one was supposed to lay eyes on me. Especially not other noblemen or their families in general for that had the potential to cause entanglements Reubon did not wish to deal with," with every word, her tone became tamer and tamer, lowering near muttering level, "When I reached fourteen years old, I was no longer allowed to leave the manor,"

Unlike the concept of friendship, isolation was not that much out of his grasp. It was something he’d had to endure in his childhood as well, but for contrasting reasons than Arabella’s.

"To what purpose?"

In response, the young woman only whispered three tiny words, "For the prince,"

She did not have to go through the probing and prodigy he did, but if Silas had to pick between their two, very different fates, the vampire would have still chosen his own any time and any day.

"Here too you are mostly in contact with staff," he remarked.

"Katherine seems the type to not hold back and would stand in your face if she thought you were in the wrong," her smile returned.

"She is the type," he nodded slowly.

"Ada is so sweet, but just like me she lacks the strength and confidence to stand up for herself,"

Silas remembered a very different Ada. One that stalked him throughout the manor just to warn him about the mark. One that dared cut him off when she believed the wellbeing of her friend was at stake.

"Even Edna," for the first time that day, Arabella chuckled, "She is the first person I ever met to treat me with such disdain... After my father, of course,"

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